Google’s Nexus One Phone receives update
Starting today, Nexus One users will begin to receive an over-the-air software update on their phones. This update provides some great new features, and fixes a few problems that some users might have experienced, including:
Google Goggles: this mobile application will now be available directly on your device by launching it from your All Apps menu. Just use your Nexus One camera to start searching the web
Google Maps: the Maps application with be updated to a new version, Google Maps 3.4, which will include:
- Starred items synchronized with maps.google.com – access your favorite places from your phone or computer
- Search suggestions from your personal maps.google.com history – makes it easy to search for places you’ve searched for before
- Night mode in Google Maps Navigation – automatically changes your screen at night for easier viewing and driving
Pinch-to-zoom functionality: devices will now include a new pinch-to-zoom mechanism in the phone’s Browser, Gallery and Maps applications
3G connectivity: we will provide a general fix to help improve 3G connectivity on some Nexus One phones
In order to access the update, you will receive a message on your phone’s notification bar. Just download the update, wait for it to install, and you should be all set. This update will be rolled out gradually to phones – and most users might not receive the notification until the end
Apple iPad Forums are here!
Are you into Gadgets as much as we are? If so you are surely aware that Apple has released the iPad today. We’ve got all the information and a growing community that’s dedicated entirely to the Apple iPad. Wanna come and get a low member number and check it out? Visit us on the iPad Forum at http://www.ipadforums.net and you can register for free in 15 seconds here: http://www.ipadforums.net/register.php
Google Phone Announcement Coming January 5th
Google has announced a press conference in Mountain View on the 5th January.
| With the launch of the first Android-powered device just over a year ago, we’ve seen how a powerful, open platform can spur mobile product innovation. And this is just the beginning of what’s possible.
Please join us in Mountain View on January 5, for an Android press gathering. |
Nexus One Forum – Google Phone Forum
AllGooglePhones.com has been around nearly two years with anticipation of Google’s Smart Phone originally rumored to be the GPhone. Over the last few days, we have posted news with release information of the Google Phone dubbed NEXUS ONE.
With that in mind, we felt it was only right to make an entire new site dedicated to the smart phone that could be one of the many new iPhone assassins. For those interested in the new Google Smart Phone or have questions, stop by and say HI! We will have the answers and look forward to building the greatest Google Phone resource on the web.
CNET looks inside the new Google Phone
The Google phone will use what is probably the fastest smartphone chip on the planet and become the first non-Windows smartphone to tap into this kind of processing power.
Conspicious among the Google phone’s leaked specifications is the Snapdragon processor from Qualcomm. Snapdragon is the first gigahertz-class ARM-based processor to be used in smartphones. (In current implementations, Snapdragon runs at 1GHz.)
And the Google phone–aka, Nexus One–will have some interesting company, though both of the rival phones that use the chip are in the Windows Mobile camp: the Toshiba TG01 and HTC HD2.
Interestingly, all of these phones have, relatively speaking, large screens: more than four inches in diagonal size. The Google phone will also add high-resolution (based on an OLED touchscreen) to that.
What’s the big picture on all of this? Smartphones are getting larger and more like small tablets (or “media pads”–which is really a more apt description) and their functionality is becoming more akin to personal computers. So, faster processors are necessary (let’s not forget Nvidia’s Tegra chip or Texas Instrument’s OMAP processor) to handle the increasing hardware and software workloads.
Sort of sounds like the old PC mantra. Bigger, better, faster. Bigger storage/memory capacities, better (increasingly sophisticated) operating systems, and faster processors. Which is why Intel is sprinting as fast it can to get its “x86″ PC architecture into smartphones. But this market is going to be a hard one to crack for Intel, no matter how much it wows device makers with its technology and marketing clout.
Look no further than Microsoft for proof. Despite its size and status, it is currently losing the smartphone (Windows Mobile) mindshare (and market share) battle to the Apple iPhone. And prospects won’t improve with the emergence of devices–such as the Motorola Droid and Google Phone–based on Google’s Android operating system, not to mention other popular platforms such as the BlackBerry.
The bottom line is that silicon competition will be varied and vigorous in the smartphone market–unlike the PC space. Which makes the unveiling of every new major smartphone all the more interesting.
[Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-1001_3-10415466-92.html}
Google phone creates new industry model
The Washington Post reports:
With Google’s disclosure over the weekend that it would launch its own cellphone, the online giant is staking claim to a piece of the fast-growing mobile marketplace and making a direct challenge to Apple’s swift rise in the sector.
Google said in a corporate blog on Saturday that it has developed a phone based on its Android mobile operating system and distributed it to employees to try out. Soon after, pictures of the phone surfaced on the Twitter feeds of employees and outside bloggers with details that the device would be launched next month and sold directly to consumers. The new phone would be capable of operating on any network, according to a source close to the company who was not authorized to comment publicly.
Google’s approach would run counter to the current practices of handset makers and carriers that partner up in exclusive deals to market and sell phones, and provide mobile service. AT&T, for instance, has been the sole provider of service for Apple’s iPhone since the device was launched in 2007. Sprint tied up with Palm for its Pre smart phone earlier this year, and Verizon exclusively runs several versions of Research in Motion’s BlackBerry.
In iPhone’s case, the exclusivity agreement goes far beyond the choice of service provider. Apple tightly controls the applications that are available for the phone through its iTunes store, and its decision to block a voice application from Google sparked an inquiry by the Federal Communications Commission.
For the rest of the article visit:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/14/AR2009121403454.html